Will you please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, the 26th chapter, and we read the first 16 verses. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 26, reading from the first verse. When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, you know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified. Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But, they said, not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people. Now, when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment. And she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor. But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, Why do you trouble the woman? for she has done a good thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, What she has done will also be told in memory of her." Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "'What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?' And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment He sought an opportunity to betray Him. Let us pray. Lord, Your Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Your Word makes us wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. And we come, Lord, seeking the help of the Holy Spirit. that he may bring the word of Christ to dwell richly among us and within us. Plant your truth deep within. Cause that truth, Lord, to shape us and style us into the likeness of your Son, our great Savior Jesus Christ. Meet us, Lord, in our need. We are poor and needy, Many of us are weak, failing, and faltering, and we look to You. Be our Helper, as You have promised to be, and we ask it all in our Savior Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Why should any Christian do anything that Jesus commands them to do? Now, the answer to that may seem exceedingly obvious, because He commands us to do it, and that would be a good answer. It might be a B or a B-plus answer, but it's not the principal answer or even the principal answer that the Bible would give us. Sometimes when the gospel writers are narrating to us the saving significance of the life and mission of our Lord Jesus Christ, they deliberately depart from a strict chronology in order to highlight a glorious theology. And this is what Matthew is doing here in these opening 16 verses. If you compare the incident of the woman anointing Jesus with the account in Luke's gospel, Mark, and then again in John 12, you see that Matthew has deliberately rearranged his narrative, and he sandwiches the woman's anointing of Jesus between two significant moments. Jesus has told His disciples that in two days the Passover will come, when He will be delivered up to be crucified. The shadow of Calvary is beginning to penetrate the human soul of our Savior Jesus Christ. There is an escalating tension, even darkness, that is beginning to envelop the holy humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Matthew then tells us that the chief priests and the elders of the people gather to plot Jesus' demise. They've reached this point of no return. They want this man out of the way. And so they plot and they plan because they see no value in Jesus. They see nothing of any worth in Jesus. And then after the anointing at Bethany, we read of Judas going to the chief priests and saying, what will you give me if I hand him over to you? Judas, like the chief priests, sees no value in Jesus. There is nothing of any significance or worth in Jesus. And it's between these two significant moments where the religious authorities and then Judas, one of the twelve, placard their utter, utter disdain for Jesus. There is no value in Him. There's no worth in Him. Matthew places this beautiful incident of the unnamed woman who comes and pours out on Jesus this extravagant anointment. Let me say three brief introductory things about this incident, and then ask the question, why? Why? Notice first of all and very obviously the extravagance of the woman's devotion. She comes, this unnamed woman with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she pours it out on his head as he reclines at table. The text is very bare. The assumption is that this may well have been a family heirloom. It was certainly anointment that could have been sold, as we read, for a large sum and given to the poor. But this woman comes and she expends her all on Jesus. Unlike the chief priests and Judas, she sees value and worth in Jesus. and she pours out this ointment upon him. Now, Jesus says that she has done this in preparation for his burial. It's a somewhat enigmatic statement. We're not really sure how much does this woman really know of what's happening. Most probably, she is Mary, the sister of Martha, If this is exactly, and I think it probably is, Matthew's account of what we read in John chapter 12, we know that Martha understood that Lazarus would rise again on the last day. What did Mary understand of the momentous events that were hurtling towards Calvary's cross? Well, we don't really know. What we do know is she understood more than Jesus' disciples. She understood something of the significance of what lay before the Lord Jesus Christ. It may be she had profound insight into the sufferings and the saving work of the Messiah. We don't really know. Biblical narrative is often frustratingly bare. It's very Hebraic. Hebrew narrative leaves you often frustrated when you read it, because you want the narrator, the writer, to stop and to say, can you just pause here and unpack this for me? No, join up the dots. Dig deeply into the Scriptures. I've little doubt myself that Mary, however, dimly understands that here is God's Messiah, the Anointed One. He is the Messiah, and as prophet, priest, and king, He was being anointed unto His burial. God was wonderfully placarding to this little community and beyond this little community, to the whole world, here is the One on whom my anointing favor rests. And so this woman just expends extravagantly her all upon Jesus, and Matthew doesn't name her. Now, John does, but why does Matthew not name her? He surely knew who she was. The answer is very simply, Mary is not the great centerpiece of the drama. And then you have the anger of Jesus' disciples. They are indignant. They look at what this woman has done, and they say, well, quite sanely, don't they? Why this waste? It sounds very reasonable, sounds very rational, doesn't it? Why this waste? Think of what this could have been sold for and what benefits and blessings could have been given to the poor. This extravagant display of devotion just transcended their comprehension. They were, I think, probably embarrassed by the woman. They're stunned. They couldn't see what this woman could see. They were privileged men. They had been with Jesus for three years. They had walked with Him. They had talked with Him. They had listened to Him. They had seen Him do great and mighty things. And this unnamed woman, can see more than they can see. And then thirdly, you have Jesus' stunning response. Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done, well, the ESV has a beautiful thing to me. Well, possibly the word is almost never used like that. She has done a good thing to me. You always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial." And then these remarkable words, "'Truly I say to you.'" And when Jesus uses that formula, He's saying, now pay most careful attention to this. Wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she, this unnamed woman, has done will be told in memory of her. And here we are, 13th of October, 2024, in the quaint little town, city of Savannah, and we're reading about a woman who poured out her life in extravagant devotion to Jesus. John Calvin, somewhat surprisingly for him, says it is because he wished to testify by the symbol that His grace would yield a sweet odor as it breathed life and salvation through the whole world." It's a very unusual comment from someone like Calvin, who is usually so rigorously tied to the text and to the theology of the text. But he sees something profound here. He sees in this a kind of enacted parable that just as the oil was poured on Aaron and Psalm 133 and dripped down from his beard right down to his feet, that their God was, as it were, explicating in this little drama an odor that would bring sweetness to the world. When I first read it, I thought, this is a little fanciful. This is unlike John Calvin. But you know, sometimes we read the Bible far, far too grammatically. I don't mean we shouldn't read it grammatically, but there are profundities, there are connections, there's an organic character to Holy Scripture, and I've little doubt that here this event, this dramatic event, would immediately conjure up images and thoughts of prophets, priests, and kings being anointed and set apart, and God placing His imprimatur of divine blessedness upon His chosen servants. And here it's an unnamed woman. an unnamed woman, and we're talking about her 2,000 years on from what she did. But the question I want to ask this evening is this, why? Why did she do this? Why did she do this? If you were to ask John Gibson Payton, who went to the new Hebrides, Vanuatu from Scotland in 1858, arrived and his wife of 11 months dies. Four weeks later, the child she gave birth to dies. If you ask John Gibson Payton, why did you go there? because he's worth it. If you were to ask Adoniram Judson, who goes to Burma, early decades of the 19th century, and suffers hardships that are hard to even talk about, and you say, well, brother, why? Why? Well, one obvious answer would be, well, are we not commanded to go into all the earth and make disciples? We are. But I've little doubt if you asked Adoniram Judson, why did you go? Because he's worth it. Because he's worth it. William Borden, a name some of you may know. He's called William Borden of Yale. He had come to faith. He was from a wealthy home. His great desire was to go east and preach the gospel of Christ. He longed to go to the land of Burma. But for some years he was persuaded to travel throughout the United States, to speak to young men especially, and call them to give up their small ambitions and go out east and preach the gospel of Christ. And he traveled the length and breadth of your land. But then the day came when he set sail. for where his heart longed to go and to be. And the first great port of call in those days was Alexandria in Egypt. And in Alexandria, William Borden was struck down with cerebral encephalitis. He would never see Burma. He would die and be buried in Alexandria. As he lay dying, some medical men gathered around his bed, and one of them said, what a waste, what a waste. And you could understand it, couldn't you? He is this young man full of promise, and yet here he is dying with the little energy he had left. William Borden raised himself up and said to the men, no reserve, no retreat, no regrets. William Borden, was it worth it? He is worth it. I want to give four very simple reasons why the Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of our utmost and our best and our highest. I don't know how much Mary, if this is who she was, I'm pretty sure she was Mary, I don't know how much she really understood. I tend to think these old covenant believers knew much, much more, however dimly. than we perhaps think they knew. Here are four reasons why Jesus Christ is worth everything you have to give Him. Number one, because of who He is. He is God the Son made flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He is God the Son who condescended to come into the fallenness, the brokenness, the darkness of this God-denying, fallen, sinful world, that He might stand among us and stand with us and stand for us before God in the frailty of our humanity. I'm not sure we give enough thought to the holy humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. John Owen, the great English Puritan, in volume one of his works, The Glory of Christ, says, on which the Christian religion rests, the sole rock on which our faith is founded, our only source of present grace and future glory is," how would you complete the sentence? The hypostatic union. the union in Jesus Christ of Godhood and manhood, without admixture, without confusion, without division, without separation, this ineffable union that is beyond all fathoming. This is the very rock on which everything rests. And someone might say, Surely it's the cross of Jesus Christ that is our glory. Absolutely, God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. But my friends, wherein lies the glory of Calvary in the person of the one who died there? The virtue, the efficacy of Calvary. lies in that ineffable union of godhood and manhood. The early church fathers didn't get everything right. We know that. But they got a lot more right than many people think. Whenever I read the church fathers, I'm almost always embarrassed by not just the profundity of the thoughts that they give to these great ineffable truths, but the passion The passion with which they delight in God become man in Jesus Christ. Their concern is not simply to get their doctrine right, though that's true in itself absolutely. but they understood that Christian doctrine is not a brute chunk of fact to confess. It is marrow of divinity to suck on and be nurtured and nourished by. Martin Busser, who so profoundly influenced John Calvin wrote, I think in his commentary on John 1, 29, true theology is not theoretical, it is practical. The end of it is to live a godly life. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is not simply a doctrine to acknowledge, confess, and then put back in the box. It's a doctrine to glory in, to rejoice in, to wallow in, if I can use such language. Who Jesus Christ is makes Him worthy of everything you have to give Him. But secondly, He's worthy because of what He has done. This One who came from highest heaven into such a world as this, took that frail flesh, addicted to so many wretchednesses, as Calvin so beautifully and dramatically puts it, took that frail flesh all through His life, sinlessly, impeccably, and offered it up on Calvary's cross as the covenant head of all His people throughout the ages of history as their sin-bearing, sin-atoning, wrath-quenching substitute. He's worthy because the Son of God became the object of God's wrath. so that the objects of His wrath might become the sons and daughters of His love. I too often, and this I speak to myself before I speak to any of you, I think to my shame throughout my Christian life, I've spent much time wanting to think accurately about the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. And of course, that's good and right. We want to be accurate. We want to be biblical. But at times I think I've spent more time getting my head right about the cross than having my heart affected by the cross. I mentioned this, I think, in one of my seminars. John Calvin, excuse me if I keep mentioning Calvin, he was so formative in my young life as a Christian. I was very privileged as a young Christian to be introduced to good literature. The first biography I think I ever read was the Banner Volume, John G. Peyton, Missionary to the New Hebrides. The first real paperback I ever read, I remember reading, was John Murray's Redemption Accomplished and Applied. And then someone introduced me to Calvin. And when Calvin comes to discuss the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, he says something very significant, very powerful. He says, you've never understood justification by faith alone unless sensus suavitatis, you have sucked the sweet sense of it. tasted the joy of it, the wonder of it. Now, he's not saying that justification is not a law court doctrine that's rooted in the forensic character and language of the New Testament. Of course it is. But he's saying something vital here, that gospel truth is not simply to be affirmed, it's to be tasted. I sometimes like to ask some of my students, as I ask myself, what taste does justification by faith alone in Christ alone have for you? The psalmist says, Psalm 34, taste and see that the Lord is good. Jesus Christ is worthy because of what He's done for us. and wonder of wonders He has come and He has made atonement for sin. He has opened the life gate that all may go in. He has died the just for the unjust to bring us to God. He became a curse for us that we might be everlastingly embraced in the blessedness of God. He's worthy of all that you are and of all that you have because of what He's done for you. But then thirdly, He is worth it because of what He is presently doing for you. I sometimes wonder if Christians think that for the past two thousand years the Lord is just lying, as it were, in the lap of luxury on beds of ease and being feted here, there, and everywhere by the angelic hosts. What does the Scripture say the Lord Jesus Christ is doing? He ever lives to make intercession for His people. Every, if we can use spatial language, every moment of every day, of every week, of every year, of every decade, of every century, of every millennium, He is always pleading our cause at God's right hand, bearing us up, carrying us into the presence of the heavenly Father. Now, Christians think a little differently about this. There are many, perhaps most, who think that Christ makes vocal intercession, and that's quite possible, I think. But like Calvin and Owen, John Owen, I think that what we are to understand by the intercession of Christ is not the vocality of His prayers, but the very presence of who He is. As the Father beholds the Son and sees the nail prints in His hands, rich wounds yet visible above. As the Father sees in His Son the perfect atonement and the perfect sanctification and glorification that He accomplished for all His people, it's as if the Father says, all that you have done for them, I will see to the accomplishment of it by the work of the Spirit, Maybe you're in some kind of an extremist tonight, and you can hardly string two words together in prayer. There is one at the right hand of God who ever lives to make intercession for you. He carries you in His heart into the very presence of God. Here am I. and the children God has given me." And then fourthly, just in a word, He is worthy of your best and your all because of who He is, because of what He's done, because of what He's doing, and because of what He will yet do. He will come again. low with clouds descending. He will make a new heavens and a new earth the home of righteousness. He will wipe away every tear from your eyes, every sorrow, every sadness, every brokenness. He will personally, personally Wipe it all away and make all things new." How much did Mary understand? I don't know. The Lord Jesus says, she has done it to prepare for my burial. She did what the disciples weren't doing because she saw what the disciples couldn't see. She saw the transcendent worthiness of the Savior. Do you see that transcendent worthiness? When the Lord Jesus Christ said to his little disciple band, go into all the world, make disciples, baptizing them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He was not saying there every Christian is to be a witness in the world. That's true, but that's not what he's saying there. The Greek structure is absolutely crystal clear about that. He's commissioning the church to send out men and women to the ends of the earth. And the Lord still is saying, whom shall I send? Who will go for us? And if we go simply on the basis of a command, I don't think that will cut it. when you lose your wife after you arrive, after nine months of a journey and you've only been married a few months and she dies and the little baby she's given birth to dies, I don't think a command will cut it. It's who gave the command. And so you say to all these Great saints and martyrs, was it worth it? They'll say, he was worth it. Do you see what the woman saw? Amen.